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Printable-character typeahead navigation for Select — and eventually any listbox-pattern surface — so keyboard users can jump the highlight to items by their leading character, matching native <select> behavior. Originates from the #543 WS4 accessibility audit; a working prototype was built in #635 and split out pending this design pass.
Open questions
- Name. The prototype exposed it as
typeahead(char) on VirtualFocusReturn, which breaks the composable's imperative verb family (highlight / clear / next / prev / first / last). Candidates: find, match.
- Home.
useVirtualFocus owns the cursor and the item registry, so it is the natural host — but the feature embeds DOM textContent reads into an otherwise DOM-light composable, and useRovingFocus will eventually want identical behavior. Options: keep it on useVirtualFocus, or extract a shared text-matching seam both focus composables consume.
- Scope / APG parity. The prototype was single-character only. Full APG listbox typeahead needs a timed multi-character buffer (
useTimer is the obvious substrate) and a decision on closed-state semantics — native <select> responds to typeahead while closed (changing the value), whereas the prototype was inert unless the listbox was open.
Prototype
The removed implementation (composable method, SelectActivator keydown wiring, unit + browser tests) is recoverable at the pre-split head of #635: bdb78da8e.
Refs #543, #635.
Ask
Printable-character typeahead navigation for
Select— and eventually any listbox-pattern surface — so keyboard users can jump the highlight to items by their leading character, matching native<select>behavior. Originates from the #543 WS4 accessibility audit; a working prototype was built in #635 and split out pending this design pass.Open questions
typeahead(char)onVirtualFocusReturn, which breaks the composable's imperative verb family (highlight/clear/next/prev/first/last). Candidates:find,match.useVirtualFocusowns the cursor and the item registry, so it is the natural host — but the feature embeds DOMtextContentreads into an otherwise DOM-light composable, anduseRovingFocuswill eventually want identical behavior. Options: keep it onuseVirtualFocus, or extract a shared text-matching seam both focus composables consume.useTimeris the obvious substrate) and a decision on closed-state semantics — native<select>responds to typeahead while closed (changing the value), whereas the prototype was inert unless the listbox was open.Prototype
The removed implementation (composable method,
SelectActivatorkeydown wiring, unit + browser tests) is recoverable at the pre-split head of #635:bdb78da8e.Refs #543, #635.